How The 3 R's Help Us Complete Our Marathon Of Work

You might stop working if you don’t pause on purpose. The
stopping could be procrastination, early retirement, stress leave, burnout,
exhaustion, or chronic disengagement. Purposeful pauses offer you rest,
relaxation, and rejuvenation to sustain performance over the long run.

Rest, relax, rejuvenate

In education, the three R’s are reading, writing, and
arithmetic. Just as essential as the three R’s of schooling are the three R’s
of work: rest, relaxation, and rejuvenation. If we aspire to have fully engaged
employees and high performance, we must give attention, energy and effort to
replenishing ourselves.

We want employees to fully engage but we must recognize that
being fully engaged is not infinitely sustainable. We want more from employees
at work, but the endless pursuit of more is a pathway to less done in more
time, anemic effort, or burnout as employees become exhausted, cynical, and
lack the belief they can achieve results.

Overall, we focus far too much on improving performance
management with ratings, assessments, feedback and conversations. And we don’t
focus enough on the subtle factors surrounding performance that help us be our
best. What if we acted on the
realization that we can enhance performance with healthy cycles between
performance and recovery?

Slow down. You move too fast. It’s the best way to hit the finish line with a marathon of work. Tweet this

Go slower to go faster

Let’s take an example from marathons. I’ve been following
the heroic, seemingly impossible quest to break the 2-hour barrier for a
marathon. There are many elements required to achieve this performance and
these include rest, recovery and going slow at times. Ed Caesar wrote a series
of intriguing Wired articles about
the marathon mission and his own attempt to run under 90 minutes for a half
marathon. In one piece, “The
Secret to
Running a Faster Marathon? Slow Down,” Ed outlined the importance of rest,
recovery, and going slower to go faster.

We need to work hard, but
not all day and not every day. Many amateur marathoners are surprised to
discover that some of their best times occur when they took short and strategic
walking breaks during the race. To go fast, also go slow. This applies to work
performance, too.

Work researchers, Zijlstra, Cropley and
Rydstedt stated in their 2014paper
on recovery from work:

Internal
recovery refers to the shorter periods of relaxation that take place within the
frames of the workday or the work setting in the form of short scheduled or
unscheduled breaks, by shifting attention or changing to other work tasks when
the mental or physical resources required for the initial task are temporarily
depleted or exhausted. External recovery refers to actions that take place
outside of work – e.g. in the free time between the workdays, and during
weekends, holidays or vacations.

Here are 3 keys to help you unlock the 3R’s and improve your
overall approach to performance:

1. Be mindful.

Don’t work with blinders on. Monitor your performance by
giving attention to your energy and productivity. When your efficiency begins
to decline, use that as a trigger to recharge through some form of rest,
relaxation, or rejuvenation. This could range from a 10-minute nap or walk to
engaging in non-work conversation. Whatever you choose to do, ensure it
contributes to your energy for future work rather than deplete you even
further.

2. Rejuvenation is not a solo voyage.

Involve others at work in shared recovery periods. Go for a
walk and talk or have one team member monitor your team’s performance and call
a time out whenever it seems to be waning because of low energy or exhaustion.
This time out may not be the time to pull out your smart phone and have the
screen absorb the little energy you have left. Work gets broken when we fail to
take real breaks.

3. Sometimes a switch is as good as a rest.

I’m not advocating multi-tasking here, as multi-tasking
is not effective. But I am encouraging you to switch tasks completely and
take time away by engaging with another task – you may be more refreshed when
you return to the previous task. By the way, don’t make this your only method
at the expense of others times of rest and rejuvenation.

Turn your own keys to improve performance by ensuring you
have the vigor, energy and vitality to be at your best. What works for one
person may not work for another person. And what works for you today may not
work in the future. Pay attention to ensure that what you do to relax and
recover is having the benefit intended and doesn’t become another demand you’ve
created for yourself that depletes a dwindling supply of energy.

In The
Power of Full Engagement, Jim
Loehr and Tony Schwartz declared that energy, not time, is the new currency of
work. Ensure you are using time during the day and after work to build your
performance currency reserves. “Doing nothing” means a great deal when it’s
embedded in full engagement and high performance.

Transform Learning To Boost Engagement

Transform Learning To Boost Engagement

By David Zinger

David Zinger believes engagement is both a right and a responsibility. He is devoted to advancing the New Employee Engagement. The ABCs of the new engagement are Achieve results, Build relationships and Cultivate wellbeing through daily actions and interactions focused on results, performance, progress, relationships, recognition, moments, strengths, meaning, wellbeing, and energy.

David has worked on engagement from Singapore to Saskatoon, Wales to Winnipeg, and Oman to Ottawa. He has devoted over 18,000 hours to engagement which included 4 books on work and over 1500 blog posts on engagement. David is the founder and host of the 7000+ member Employee Engagement Network. Connect with David at www.davidzinger.com or email him at: david@davidzinger.com